In order to fully understand artists and their work we need to look beyond their social, cultural and historical context and beyond the places, people and scenes depicted in their works. In order to do so, the museum is offering a new capsule course aimed at everyone who would like to find out more about the elements that configure an artist’s creative environment. Participants will learn about the various techniques of artistic creation and conservation, such as how materials were prepared during the different historical periods and what an artist’s day-to-day working life was like, as well as restoration procedures and their evolution towards the current concept of “preventive conservation.”

The course is divided into two independent modules: part I in October and part II in the spring of 2023.

Part I focuses on the study of tempera and oil painting, in addition to other artistic techniques such as pastel, gouache and watercolour.

The techniques of collage (American painting), dripping (Jackson Pollock), serigraphy (Robert Rauschenberg), assemblage (Dadaism) and decalcomania (Max Ernst), some of the most important developed by 20th-century artists, are the focus of Part II, with a final session on printmaking.

Professor Susana Blas will give the course in two independent forms: online, on Microsoft Teams, for the Friday group, and in person in the museum’s galleries for the Sunday group.